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Introduction

  • Acts as a single point of contact that the child or young person and their family can trust, and who is able to support them in making choices and in navigating their way through the system.
  • Co-ordinates the actions agreed by the Team Around the Family to ensure effective delivery which provide a solution-focused package of support and that the family receive the agreed interventions.
  • Reduces overlap and inconsistency.
  • Co-ordinates the regular review of the support plan agreed by the Team Around the Family.
  • Supports the child through key transitions and ensures a careful and planned handover takes place where it is more appropriate for someone else to be the Lead Practitioner.

  • ALL Team around the Family members are responsible for updating the Lead Practitioner with developments and progress.

Who can be a Lead Practitioner?

It is possible that any practitioner could take on the Lead Practitioner role, as the skills, competence and knowledge required to carry it out are similar regardless of background or role. For most children and young people with additional needs requiring support from a Lead Practitioner, it is anticipated that the person carrying out this role will be drawn from the range of practitioners who are currently delivering early intervention support with that particular child/young person or family.

What is important is that where staff take on the role of Lead Practitioner, this does not create a new burden but results in children and young people gaining access to better co-coordinated and targeted support. Whereas in the past several practitioners may have been “leading” on the same cases the Lead Practitioner role should enable the workload to be streamlined. With one person taking the lead for each case duplication can be avoided and families will experience a more coherent and joined-up approach. However, to gain this benefit all agencies must be prepared to collaborate, taking on the lead role for some cases and participating as Team around the Family members for other cases.

In some cases the Team around the Family may include staff from other local authorities, e.g. a child resident in Newcastle but attending school in another Local Authority. 

Next section: Supervision and support for Lead Practitioner

Page last updated: 13 January, 2012